


Storge

by lesbianwisdom



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Bunch of Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, but are important parts of it nonetheless, but yeah, garnet loves her baby so much......, i also love the way steven and garnet love each other so that is the main focus of this work, i basically had a ton of feels about change your mind and had to get them out, i tried to not have it end too sadly but idk if it panned out, it is a bit all over the place, just take it, oh and white and sunstone are discussed, they do not actually appear in the fic, with lots of family feels because i love this family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 00:22:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19073689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianwisdom/pseuds/lesbianwisdom
Summary: We pick up right where Change Your Mind ended, with Steven on the beach, surrounded by his family. Steven and Garnet go on to reflect on what they went through at Homeworld.~~~~~~~~~~~STORGE (noun):origin - Greekdefinition - natural or instinctual affection, as of a parent for a child





	Storge

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, I had a ton of feels (good and bad) about Change Your Mind and had to get them out. This fic is probably corny as hell. I tried to not get too sad when writing it, but I failed miserably. So I do hope that it all feels genuine, as I hoped, rather than coming off as pretentious, over-the-top angst. My aim was some type of catharsis, not needless angst for the sake of angst. I hope that was achieved. 
> 
> I also focused on Garnet and Steven, because I adore their relationship and how they've grown together. Seeing them fuse was incredible and epic and emotional in a way I can't even explain. Garnet really loves her baby so much, and Steven really loves his mama so much. That said, the Crystal Gem family as a whole gets me all misty-eyed. I just had to take some time to reflect on how everyone has grown so much, something Change Your Mind very visibly highlighted. It's been incredible to watch all these characters I love get to where they are now. And I know there will be a lot more to come for these guys. Here's to even more adventures ahead! 
> 
> This fic is barely proofread, and a bit scattered, so I apologize in advance for any glaring errors. I hope none of the characters feel too ooc! I will likely return to it at some point for editing purposes, but let me know what you think!

_“...if you change your mind.”_

The final notes of the bittersweet song rang out. A shooting star streaked across the sparkling sky. 

Something melancholic but also quietly hopeful and cathartic settled into the air. The four gems let it sit there - let themselves sit in it - for a few moments. They stared, at the ever-changing and gently rumbling sea, at the brocade of stars above them. 

“It’s lovely”, Pearl murmured finally. 

Steven tilted his head back so he could see her face. There was a soft, far-away look in her eyes, as if she was thinking about a million different things, but she looked more at peace than Steven had ever seen her before. Like she was no longer carrying the weight of the world - and her secrets - on her shoulders. The realization filled him with warmth. She deserved it, he decided, after everything they all had been through. 

He felt Amethyst’s hair brushing against his right arm. She was still lying on her back, but had scooted closer to him. Her hair was all askew, in a manner that was so perfectly - and so beautifully - _her_. 

“Darn tootin’, I love me!” she crowed, grinning like a Cheshire cat. While her tone was playful, there was real fire behind it. She loved herself, flaws and all - and she truly meant it. Amethyst would always continue to mess around, but now it seemed as though she had resolved never to use humor as a mask any more. No more hiding what bothered her or what she was ashamed of. If she was going to laugh at how bad she felt, at least she would be _honest_ about it. And _then_ she would get to really dealing with the problem instead of pushing it away. And wasn’t that part of loving yourself? 

Steven felt a quiet pride when he thought of how far she’d come with her self-esteem issues. It inspired him. Amethyst had a way of doing that. 

Said gem then proceeded to grab Steven and give him a noogie. Ah, well. Some things never change, Steven mused fondly as he laughed and tried to push her away.

Garnet placed one firm hand on the heads of each of the rabble-rousers, causing them to settle down. Though she didn’t speak, the tender smile on her face and that ever-so familiar gesture of affection spoke volumes. Over the years Steven had come to associate it with security and love. Depending on the situation, a gentle ruffle of the hair could mean anything from ‘I need you to listen carefully’, to ‘it will all be okay’, to ‘I’m proud of you’. It made sense, Steven thought affectionately, for a gem who generally preferred action to words. 

“We are all so proud of you,” she said quietly. With one hand, she removed her visors, revealing three multicolored eyes that glittered with joyful tears. She brought her other hand to her chin in a thoughtful gesture. “And _I_ am so proud of all of _you_ ,” she said after a few moments, referring to all three sitting with her. “Thank you for everything.” 

Garnet’s eyes weren’t the only ones that were wet at that statement. In that moment, they all felt the depth of those words and just how much she wanted to convey. 

“You’re making me all emotional and junk, G,” Amethyst quipped. “But yeah, same. I just…” She hesitated, trying to find words that could come close to capturing how she felt. “I dunno, everything is messy right now, and we’re gonna have a whole bunch of janked up stuff on our hands soon… but I’m glad that we have each other.” A pause. “Also I’m glad none of us got pulverized by the three intergalactic dirt-wads. Because they stink.”

Pearl snorted and then sniffled. Amethyst took it as a sign that she felt similarly and simply reached out to pat her arm reassuringly. 

“Well,” Pearl said finally, voice quivering, “it’s been an eventful few days for us all, hasn’t it?” She wiped at her face with the back of her hand and smiled. “I am sure we all have a great many things to discuss, but for the time being, Steven needs to sleep.” She gazed at him somewhat sternly, in a way that reminded Steven of a mother hen. “A human of your age requires between eight to ten hours of sleep, after all, and you certainly have not been keeping up with that.”

“Sleep is a curse, and yet a curse you need to live,” Garnet agreed solemnly. Across from her, Amethyst stretched and gave an exaggerated yawn. 

“It’s a curse I gotta live too!” she said. “There’s this sweet memory foam mattress in my room and it’s calling my name.” 

Pearl rolled her eyes and Steven giggled. 

And so it was off to bed for the boy. As each gem tucked him in and bid good night, he decided that climbing into a warm bed after a long day (or a long few days) was undeniably one of the best feelings in the world. Even better when you had your family with you and the promise of better days to come. 

Pearl and Amethyst retreated to their rooms, the latter still raving about her beloved memory foam mattress as the temple door closed behind her. 

Garnet, however, lingered.

“The hug monster is here,” she announced. That was all the warning Steven received before she set herself down on the bed and wrapped her arms around him. He laughed and hugged back. 

“This is the best hug monster with the best hugs ever!” he declared, rubbing his cheek against her arm. "Garnet, your arms just might be the safest place in the world." 

She grinned down at him. Her eyes were still uncovered, shining with joy and warmth. 

“Steven, we fused!” she said excitedly, voice full of wonder. “We... we really did it.” It was his turn to grin.

“Sunstone was amazing, weren’t they?” 

“They were awesome!” 

To Steven, Garnet’s hearty cheer sounded and felt like the comforting rumble of the ocean outside his house. 

“It was so-- so warm and powerful, and I felt like I could do _anything_! And- and I felt like everyone else could too!” Steven babbled on for a while. Garnet merely smiled and let him continue until he ran out of words to express his excitement. When he had happily trailed off, she spoke. 

“I wanted to fuse with you for so long. For us to share something so dear to me… it meant the world.” She glanced down at him. “ _You_ mean the world to me.” The pride in her voice was unmistakable. Steven felt warm. 

“Too bad Sunstone couldn’t stick around for too long, huh?”

“Don’t worry,” she said with a wink of her third eye. “We’ll have plenty of opportunities to keep practicing. They’ll be back, and they’ll be better than ever.” She placed her visors back on.

The two continued to talk quietly, about Sunstone’s radical moves, Cat Steven’s risky habit of jumping off high places, Amethyst’s memory foam mattress, and their guesses for what breakfast Pearl would whip up in the morning. 

At some point, they had settled into silence. Steven almost would have fallen asleep, if not for the odd behavior Garnet had begun to exhibit. 

She was not speaking as she stared out the window, which displayed the beach below them. The view was tranquil. Garnet was anything but, if the way she clutched at the bedsheets was any indication. 

“Everything ok?” Steven asked. 

She turned her body to face Steven, who was gazing at her with wide, worried eyes. 

All she said was, “You need to sleep.” Her tone was completely neutral, betraying nothing. Still, Steven knew Garnet well enough to sense that this silence was a troubled one. Perhaps it was the effect of his empathetic powers, but something in the air - in the energy she was exuding - had changed. He shook his head. 

“Please tell me what’s wrong, Garnet,” he pleaded. He reached out a hand and placed it one of hers. She squeezed his hand gently. The shape of the gem in her palm told him it was Ruby’s gem. That hand always had run slightly warm, compared to Garnet’s right hand.

Garnet stared at him, hesitating. It was late, and Steven _was_ understandably exhausted. But… she had to know the answer to the question that had burned in her mind all night. And he probably would not sleep well at all if he was going to worry about her, she realized ruefully. 

“On Homeworld,” she said slowly, softly, “when the three of us were being controlled by White Diamond, it was as if our minds had gone completely blank. Even now, I cannot recall what she made me do. But you and Connie remained fully conscious. So only you two bore witness to whatever took place in that ship.” 

It wasn’t a question, but Steven nodded in confirmation anyway. 

“White Diamond believed you were Pink. She wanted to restore you to what she considered your original self.” 

Steven had a feeling he knew where this was going, and he did not like it one bit. Neither did Garnet, he could tell. Still, he did not stop her. She needed to know. 

“Steven,” she said, voice barely audible, “tell me how she thought she could restore Pink.” _Here_ was the question. It was framed as a statement, a habit of Garnet’s that Steven had come to recognize over the years. But the uncertainty in her voice made it clear she was pleading rather than commanding.

His silence and refusal to look at her confirmed Garnet’s most frightful suspicion. 

The vision of White brutally removing Steven’s gem had not been a fluke after all. It truly had to come to pass, and Garnet had been unable to do anything to stop it. A rush of rage towards White filled her, and she desperately wished she could confront the Diamond herself. It took great effort for her to not squeeze Steven’s hand too hard, but the boy felt Ruby’s gem press more firmly into his palm anyway. Her expression was obscured by her eye-wear, but the action alone held fury, terror, and guilt. If Steven stayed still enough, he could have sworn her physical form even trembled. 

“We almost lost you and you had to go through that alone.” She tried so hard, but she could not control the sob that tore from her throat. 

“Connie was there too! She- she saved my life!” Steven tried to sound reassuring, but his voice broke. Garnet shook her head. Tears were openly flowing from behind her visor now. 

“Neither of you should have gone through that,” she growled. “We promised to protect you both. We should have- we should have stopped it. _I_ should have stopped it.” The implication that she blamed herself for not making the best use of her future vision was not lost on Steven. 

“Garnet--” 

“I made a vow to protect you. I vowed to your father, to the others, and to myself.” 

And it was true. She always had been fiercely protective of the Earth and her loved ones. She saw it as her duty to keep them out of danger. 

Steven looked at her mournfully. He wanted to reassure her that it was all ok, but how could he? Part of him had been _dying_. How could he ever forget being so close to the brink of death? How could he console someone who had essentially become one of his mothers, when she came dangerously close to losing someone who had essentially become her child? How could he assuage her guilt, even though she was blameless? 

Instead, he whispered, “Garnet, I was so scared.” Perhaps it was not the best thing to say in this situation, but then again, what was? 

And how could she ever live with herself if he _had_ died that day? If the worst had transpired, what good would it be to have the knowledge that she was technically not at fault? Suddenly all the pressure of having Sight and needing to guide her loved ones came rushing back to her. It was a jagged sort of pain, like a knife being run through her back. Logically, she knew she was not to blame, and neither was Steven, nor any of the others. The only one to blame here was White Diamond, who had committed the act in the first place, and ensured that almost none of the bystanders could do anything to intervene. 

But it seemed logic failed here. 

“I am so sorry,” she replied, holding him closer. “To both of you.” 

“We lived,” he mumbled into her chest. 

“You still experienced such trauma. You have for so long. We should have been more attentive to your pain. All this time, we put too much pressure on you.” 

“The same goes for you,” he pointed out. “And Pearl and Amethyst too.” And what a revelation that was for the both of them. A few moments passed before Steven spoke up again. 

“We’ll figure it out,” he said. 

Garnet could hear how tired the boy was. Here he was yet again, comforting _her_ , when it should have been the other way around. Shame pricking in her chest, she opted not to press the topic any further. 

They had to talk about what White did - they had to talk about a lot, it would seem - but not now. Not when Steven’s eyes held the weariness of thousands of years, not when his head was so heavy he could barely lift it from his pillow. 

No, now was not the time. But soon, Garnet resolved. With the others there, too. 

She bent her head to kiss the top of Steven’s fluffy hair. 

“Thank you for telling me”, she breathed. “We’ll figure it all out, together. I love you so much.” Her voice was soft but intense, perhaps even a little desperate. She never wanted to get that close to losing him ever again. She wanted so badly to be better for him. Some part of Steven seemed to recognize this. The boy smiled sleepily and a bit sadly. 

“I love you too, Garnet.”

Neither commented on how their cheeks glistened in the moonlight that filtered through the window. 

Steven rubbed Ruby’s gem in Garnet’s palm comfortingly. It seemed to remind him of something, because he suddenly added, “Oh! And I can’t forget Ruby and Sapphire too!” Garnet allowed him to plant a kiss on each of her gems as he said their names. She shifted gently so that he could worm his way out of her arms and burrow himself into his covers. Once he had successfully cocooned himself under the blankets, Garnet began to tenderly stroke his hair. 

“Next”, he mumbled through a yawn, “we’re going to plan the best, most relaxing-est, most romantic-est honeymoon you could ever dream of!” 

His eyes had closed halfway through this declaration. Garnet chuckled. 

“Alright, wedding planner. But first” - she drew the blanket over the sleeping child - “let’s get you some rest.” 

She stayed by his side until his breathing slowed and soft snores rumbled his little body.


End file.
